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Just a quick progress report on my hobby of model making. I decided on not starting the Junyo aircraft carrier because I wasn’t sure what colour I should paint it. Instead I decided to do a Tamiya motorcycle. I have always enjoyed these builds. I also appreciate that they supply some of the wiring for the engine.

I got the parts cleaned off and prepped for painting. I also took a good look at the instructions. I find it never hurts to look at all of the steps first. I might save you a headache in the end.

I am energized by the work I have done so far. Hopefully, I can continue without becoming discouraged.

Today, I had time to ponder a question. What do you want your hobby store to be?

Do you want to find it in your shopping mall, in a dark corner of a subway concourse, in a suburban strip mall, or tucked away in an industrial section of town. I can find hobby shops in all of these places in the metropolitan Toronto area. Prices seem to be cheaper in the industrial area, but less convenient to get to, and somewhat dark.

Do you want it to cover the full diversity of hobbies, or do you want it specialized? I prefer the specialized stores, even though they tend to be somewhat overwhelming in nature. I think I just prefer the directness of the advice rather than the some general knowledge.

What made me ponder this question. Today I went to a hobby store that I hadn’t been to in many years. They have moved shop from a bigger location or they shrunk from two stores to one. I am not sure and I don’t want to speculate. They have a lot of stuff crammed into the one store and it got me thinking.

They had trains (HO and N) model kits (gundam, cars, military) RC (boats, planes, and cars in multiple scales). and rocket kits. Of course they had paint, glue, tools, fuel, spare parts, balsa wood, and even a few jigsaw puzzles. Really, a lot of stuff…just nothing I was looking for today except some paint.

It was still fun to wander around the aisles and ponder what I could do next…if I didn’t have so many projects and hobbies to do next.

I had a little time to tackle a nanoblock kit I picked up quite a while ago. I put it aside to procrastinate about other things. I finally decided to tackle it.

The kit had a few unique pieces.

The instructions were clear. I especially like being told what pieces will be used in each step. It is a logical and useful way to proceed. Despite my big hands, with the help of tweezers, I was able to construct this one without too much difficulty.

I like the overall look of it, but I wish that nanoblock would come up with some better trees. I know it would mean another tooling and a new part, but I think they could use them in many kits, or sell them separately so people could retcon their old kits. If you buy one of their deluxe kits, you’d want some pretty cool trees, wouldn’t you?

What’s left over when it is all done is pretty much at least one of every piece in the kit. A good policy, I believe.

On Saturday, while walking the rainy streets of St. Catherines in search of a burrito, my friend asked me what I have been doing hobby-wise. I was at a bit of a loss for an answer. I seem to have taken a break from my hobbies.

I have spent a lot of time researching stamp collecting; both out of sheer interest and as a way of keeping myself from starting a new hobby. Knowledge, and especially knowledge of both cost and how deep you can become involved in a hobby often seem to quench the fire the new hobbies burn at. I can’t say I have quenched the fire yet, but I have come to realize that stamp collecting is a very large (deep? consuming?) hobby that perhaps only model trains can compare to. Once you make that leap….

I could say that blogging is my hobby, but how many blogs would you want to read about blogging.

I am preparing for a trip, and the preparation for the trip is taking up a lot of my time (and if I am being honest, money). I blame myself because I put off preparing for this trip because I was dealing with a medical issue. (see my other blog to find out more about my journey from Thailand to Vietnam via Cambodia by bicycle).

I visited a train store with a friend, and all it made me do was realize how backed up I am with my train hobby. I’ve got so much to do that it all seems so daunting.

I would take up ballroom dancing, but I don’t have a partner.

It’s too cold to play tennis outdoors.

I played darts last weekend after a long hiatus. The results were good, but it wasn’t exciting.

My friend gave some advice about building models. Just see one through to completion and it will change your perspective on everything. This is certainly sound advice. It’s exactly the kind of advice I would have given him if he had told me that he was in a hobby rut. It’s funny how we can give advice, but only to others.

For all the other model hobbyists about there, how do you get out of a hobby rut?

Just in case you were wondering, I haven’t given up on my hobbies. I am still pursuing them just as they pursue me.

Case in point are the latest additions to my Nanoblocks collection. While casually browsing through my local Toys R Us (I don’t know how to make that inverted R–probably copyright anyway) I found these two kits on sale. Since I was gearing up for the Tour de France (Congratulations Chris Froome) it seemed like fate was telling me to buy them.

I am pretty happy with the purchases, but need to figure out where they are going to go once I build them. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my display space has been co-opted for another use.

I had been planning on purchasing a spray booth for quite some time.I finally took the plunge and got it set up in my reorganized hobby room.(See last post for reorganization) The booth is portable and sets up pretty easily. I have the complete venting hose so I can run it outside with only a small window crack, which is important when you are living in Canada and it is winter.

The first step in getting back to my model hobby is to earnestly get my hobby desk in order.While that sounds like a good idea, until you have to move about 30 small paint bottles, little by little, you don’t realize that this is a bit of an undertaking.

I have included a before and after shot, just so you can see what I am working with. It isn’t as brightly lit as I would like…but I shouldn’t complain. It isn’t like I can’t go buy another lamp.

It isn’t really about hobbies, but some of the better writing I have done lately is there.

More organized

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As you can see by the shot, I have made the decision to purchase a spray booth.From a health perspective, this was a no brainer.While all of the paints I use say they are “non-toxic” I fear that a phrase like that, translate through lawyers and other legal jargon, really means, “not as toxic as poison, so you can’t sue us, but still not great for your lungs.”I haven’t used it yet, but hopefully today or tomorrow.